Tracking the internet pioneers

According to Fang, this set of books was created in strict accordance with academic rigor, but the language used is straightforward and comprehensible, and therefore the books are suited to all age ranges including primary school students.

These interviewees are closely involved in the invention of the internet, such as American computer scientists Lawrence Roberts, Leonard Kleinrock, Vinton Cerf and Bob Kahn, all of whom were honored by the United States National Academy of Engineering's Draper Prize as the founding fathers of the internet.

The book set also presents computer scientists from other parts of the world who have also made significant contributions, especially to their respective countries, including Kilnam Chon from South Korea, Louis Pouzin from France, Werner Zorn from Germany and Hu Qiheng from China.

Fang says that his first draft list of interviewees included mostly internet experts prestigious in the industry, but until this day, these names remain largely unheard-of among the general public－even to himself.

Despite working in the internet industry for over 20 years and founding the think tank ChinaLabs, undertaking this project has revealed to him how limited his understanding of the internet really was.

"At the time, I thought I was familiar with the internet, because I was there when it first came to China. But the internet already had a history of 25 years abroad, so I didn't know much about how it came into being and developed at its infancy, and many pioneers told of the details in those early years," Fang says.